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US9052656B2 - Cleaning device and fixing device - Google Patents

Cleaning device and fixing device Download PDF

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Publication number
US9052656B2
US9052656B2 US14/018,564 US201314018564A US9052656B2 US 9052656 B2 US9052656 B2 US 9052656B2 US 201314018564 A US201314018564 A US 201314018564A US 9052656 B2 US9052656 B2 US 9052656B2
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Prior art keywords
roller
web
rotatable member
cleaning
driving mechanism
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Application number
US14/018,564
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US20140064801A1 (en
Inventor
Seiji Shibaki
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Canon Inc
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Canon Inc
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Assigned to CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA reassignment CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST (SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS). Assignors: SHIBAKI, SEIJI
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    • G03G15/2075—
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G03—PHOTOGRAPHY; CINEMATOGRAPHY; ANALOGOUS TECHNIQUES USING WAVES OTHER THAN OPTICAL WAVES; ELECTROGRAPHY; HOLOGRAPHY
    • G03G—ELECTROGRAPHY; ELECTROPHOTOGRAPHY; MAGNETOGRAPHY
    • G03G15/00—Apparatus for electrographic processes using a charge pattern
    • G03G15/20—Apparatus for electrographic processes using a charge pattern for fixing, e.g. by using heat
    • G03G15/2003—Apparatus for electrographic processes using a charge pattern for fixing, e.g. by using heat using heat
    • G03G15/2014—Apparatus for electrographic processes using a charge pattern for fixing, e.g. by using heat using heat using contact heat
    • G03G15/2017—Structural details of the fixing unit in general, e.g. cooling means, heat shielding means
    • G03G15/2025—Structural details of the fixing unit in general, e.g. cooling means, heat shielding means with special means for lubricating and/or cleaning the fixing unit, e.g. applying offset preventing fluid

Definitions

  • the present invention relates to a cleaning device for cleaning a rotatable member and to a fixing device provided with it.
  • a fixing device is provided to fix a toner image formed on the recording material (sheet) by heating and pressing.
  • the web wound around a feeding roller is wound up on a winding-up roller via a press-contact roller disposed opposite of the fixing roller.
  • the web is gradually wound up on the winding-up roller every predetermined number of the recording materials passing through a nip.
  • a cleaning device comprising (i) a cleaning unit for cleaning a rotatable member, said cleaning unit including, (i-i) a web; (i-ii) a first roller on which said web is wound, (i-iii) a second roller configured and positioned to wind said web up, (i-iv) a driving mechanism configured to drive said second roller, (i-v) a third roller configured and positioned to urge said web to said rotatable member, (i-vi) an urging portion configured and positioned to urge said third roller toward said rotatable member, and (i-vii) a supporting mechanism supporting said third roller, said supporting mechanism permitting movement said third roller relative to said first roller and said second roller against an urging force of said urging portion; (ii) a moving mechanism configured and positioned to cause a relative movement between said cleaning unit and said rotatable member, between a first position in which said web is spaced from said rotatable member and a second position in which said
  • FIG. 1 is a schematic view of an image forming apparatus.
  • FIG. 2 is a schematic view of a fixing device, in which (a) shows a state that a temperature uniforming roller is in a contact state, (b) shows a spaced state, and (c) shows a state after the temperature uniforming roller changes from the spaced state to the contact state.
  • FIG. 3 is a schematic view of a temperature uniformizing roller moving mechanism, in which (a) shows a spacing position, and (b) shows a contact position.
  • FIG. 4 is a schematic view illustrating an urging structure for a movement roller.
  • FIG. 5 is a schematic view of a temperature uniformizing roller moving mechanism and a winding-up roller.
  • FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a controller.
  • FIG. 7 is a main flow chart of a cleaning operation of a cleaning portion.
  • FIG. 8 is an sub-flowchart in which (a) is a flow chart showing a cleaning process, (b) is a flow chart showing a tension refreshing process, and (c) is a flow chart showing a correction cleaning process.
  • FIG. 9 is a flow chart showing the correction cleaning process.
  • an image forming apparatus 1 is a tandem full color printer of an intermediary transfer type including yellow, magenta, cyan and black image forming stations 18 Y, 18 M, 18 C, 18 K arranged along an intermediary transfer belt 108 .
  • an intermediary transfer type including yellow, magenta, cyan and black image forming stations 18 Y, 18 M, 18 C, 18 K arranged along an intermediary transfer belt 108 .
  • a charging roller 13 y Around a photosensitive drum 12 y of the yellow image forming station 18 Y, there are provided a charging roller 13 y , an exposure device 14 y , developing device 15 y , a primary transfer roller 17 y and an auxiliary charging brush 19 y.
  • the photosensitive drum 12 y is accommodated in a central portion of a process unit 11 y and is rotated by a drum motor (unshown).
  • the charging roller 13 y uniformly charges the surface of the photosensitive drum 12 y.
  • the exposure device 14 y includes a laser scanner unit scanning the uniformly charged photosensitive drum 12 y in a longitudinal direction with a laser modulated and outputted by a laser diode, using a polygonal mirror rotatable member, so that an electrostatic latent image is formed in accordance with input image information.
  • the developing device 15 y uses a two component developer comprising toner and carrier particles to develop the electrostatic latent image into the visualized toner image on the photosensitive drum.
  • the developing device 15 y is supplied with the toner from a toner bottle 16 y filled with the toner.
  • the primary transfer roller 17 y urges the endless intermediary transfer belt 108 to the photosensitive drum 12 y to form a primary transfer portion between the intermediary transfer belt 108 and the photosensitive drum 12 y , and is supplied with a DC voltage to transfer the toner image from the photosensitive drum 12 y to the intermediary transfer belt 108 .
  • the auxiliary charging brush 19 y electrically charges untransferred toner not transferred by the primary transfer roller 17 y to provide such toner with uniform electric charge.
  • the above-described structures of the image forming station 18 Y are substantially the same with the magenta, cyan and black image forming stations 18 M, 18 C, 18 K.
  • the black image forming station 18 K is different in that a potential sensor 50 for measuring a surface potential of the photosensitive drum 12 k is provided.
  • the black image forming station 18 K is provided with a particular charging device 51 which is different from the charging roller 13 y of the yellow image forming station 18 Y, and the charging high voltage for the charging device 51 is adjusted on the basis of a detected value of the potential sensor 50 .
  • the intermediary transfer belt 108 Onto the intermediary transfer belt 108 , yellow, magenta, cyan and black toner images are transferred by the image forming stations 18 Y, 18 M, 18 C and 18 K.
  • the four color toner images carried on the intermediary transfer belt 108 are secondary-transferred all together onto the recording material (sheet) P by a secondary transfer portion T 2 .
  • the secondary transfer portion T 2 includes a secondary transfer roller 110 on which the intermediary transfer belt 108 is winded and a secondary transfer opposing roller 111 , in which the secondary transfer opposing roller 111 and the intermediary transfer belt 108 are contacted to each other to form a transfer nip.
  • the toner image is secondary-transferred from the intermediary transfer belt 108 onto the recording material P fed to the secondary transfer portion T 2 from the registration roller 115 .
  • the remaining toner on the intermediary transfer belt not secondary-transferred to the recording material P in the secondary transfer portion T 2 is collected by an intermediary transfer belt cleaner 112 .
  • the recording material P carrying the four color toner images is separated by curvature from the intermediary transfer belt 108 and is fed into a fixing device 141 as an image heating apparatus.
  • the fixing device 141 heats and presses the recording material P carrying the toner image to fix the unfixed toner image on the surface of the recording material P.
  • the recording material P carrying the fixed toner image is discharged to a sheet discharge tray 120 or an inner sheet discharge tray 121 .
  • the fixing device 141 includes an image heating portion 150 for heating the toner image formed on the recording material P, and a cleaning portion (cleaning device) 160 which will be described hereinafter in detail.
  • the image heating portion 150 includes a heater 151 , a fixing roller (heating member) 117 which is a rotatable member heated by the heater 151 , a pressing roller (pressing member) 118 which is a rotatable member and a temperature uniforming roller 126 which is a rotatable member.
  • the pressing roller 118 is movable toward and away from the fixing roller 117 by a pressing roller moving mechanism 153 , and forms a nip 152 for heating and feeding the recording material P in contact with the fixing roller 117 .
  • the temperature uniforming roller 126 is a follower roller which comprises metal having a high thermal conductivity and which is movable toward and away from the pressing roller 118 by a temperature uniformizing roller moving mechanism (moving mechanism) 154 ( FIG. 3 ), the follower roller being rotated by the pressing roller.
  • the temperature uniformizing roller moving mechanism 154 comprises a temperature uniformizing roller unit 132 rotatably supporting the temperature uniforming roller 126 , and cam mechanisms 131 , 133 urging the temperature uniformizing roller unit 132 . More specifically, the temperature uniformizing roller unit 132 is rotatably together with the temperature uniformizing roller unit 132 about a unit rotation shaft 142 .
  • the cam mechanism comprises a rotatable cam shaft 131 and a cam 133 mounted to the cam shaft 131 .
  • the temperature uniformizing roller unit 132 moves about the unit rotation shaft 142 from a position shown in part (a) of FIG. 3 to a position shown in part (b) of FIG. 3 .
  • the temperature uniforming roller 126 is movable from a spacing position (part (b) of FIG. 2 ) in which it does not contact the pressing roller 118 to a contact position (part (a)/(c) of FIG. 2 ) in which it contacts the pressing roller 118 .
  • the contact position and the spacing position of the temperature uniforming roller 126 is selected on the basis of a number of continuous prints after a print start and/or a detected temperature by a thermister provided on the fixing roller 117 . More specifically, in this embodiment, the temperature uniforming roller 126 is moved from the spacing position to the contact position when the number of the continuous prints reaches 25 , or when the temperature detected by the thermister exceeds 225 degrees Celcius. When the temperature uniforming roller 126 contacts the pressing roller 118 , the distribution of the surface temperature of the pressing roller 118 becomes uniform so that an end portion temperature rise of the pressing roller 118 can be suppressed.
  • the continuous number of the continuous prints, the thermister temperature and the heat quantity estimation are determined properly by a person of ordinary skill in the art depending on the power of fixing device 141 or the like. Results of experiments and measurements on the used fixing device, values acquired by theoretical value calculation, a width of the recording material, the material of the recording material and/or a meter temperature measurement degrees value detected by a thermister provided exclusively for the control may be taken into account. In order to acquire a current angle of the cam 133 correctly, a sensor for detecting the position of the cam 133 may be additionally used.
  • the cleaning portion 160 removes deposited matter (toner and paper dust or the like) deposited to the rotatable member of the image heating portion 150 (image heating apparatus). More specifically, as shown in part (a) of FIG. 2 , the cleaning unit includes a web (cleaning web 128 ), a supply roller 130 , a movement roller 127 , a winding-up roller 129 , a spring 167 and a supporting mechanism 200 ( FIG. 4 ).
  • the cleaning web 128 is a web member in the form of a sheet of non-woven paper (nonwoven fabric), is wound beforehand on the supply roller 130 as a supply member, and is wound up on the winding-up roller 129 as a winding-up member.
  • the cleaning web 128 is urged to the temperature uniforming roller 126 by a movement roller 127 at a position between the supply roller 130 and the winding-up roller 129 .
  • the cleaning portion 160 includes a moving mechanism 154 , 127 for changing the relative position between the cleaning web 128 and the temperature uniforming roller 126 .
  • the moving mechanism 154 , 127 changes the relative position between and web 128 and the temperature uniforming roller 126 between a contact state (part (a) of FIG. 2 ) and a spaced state (part (b) of FIG. 2 ) between the cleaning web 128 and the temperature uniforming roller 126 .
  • the moving mechanism includes a temperature uniformizing roller moving mechanism 154 for moving the temperature uniforming roller 126 to and away from the pressing roller 118 , and a movement roller 127 (urging member) for urging the cleaning web 128 toward the temperature uniforming roller 126 .
  • the cleaning web 128 is wound at a position between the supply roller 130 and the winding-up roller 129 .
  • a rotation shaft 127 a of the movement roller 127 is supported swingably in the direction indicated by the arrow by the supporting mechanism 200 shown in FIG. 4 .
  • rotation shafts 129 a , 130 a of the rollers 129 , 130 are supported immovably in the cleaning unit.
  • the movement roller 127 is hooked by a spring (urging portion) 167 to be urged toward the temperature uniforming roller 126 by an urging force of the spring 167 .
  • the cleaning web 128 when the temperature uniforming roller 126 is brought into contact to the pressing roller 118 (contact position) by the temperature uniformizing roller moving mechanism 154 , the cleaning web 128 is press-contacted to the temperature uniforming roller 126 with movement roller 127 . In the contact position, the cleaning web 128 is press-contacted to the temperature uniforming roller 126 by a predetermined urging force of the spring 167 (contact state). As shown in FIG. 2 , a direction in which the temperature uniforming roller 126 urges the pressing roller 118 using the temperature uniformizing roller moving mechanism 154 is different from the direction in which the movement roller 127 urges the web 128 toward the temperature uniforming roller 126 . Therefore, the contact pressure between the web 128 and the temperature uniforming roller 126 are to be at a proper level.
  • a driving source for the winding-up roller 129 and that for the temperature uniformizing roller moving mechanism 154 are common. More specifically, the winding-up roller 129 is rotated by power from a web motor (driving source) 134 is a driving mechanism through a power transmission mechanism 170 as a driving mechanism to wind up the cleaning web 128 wound to the supply roller 130 .
  • the power transmission mechanism 170 is provided with two one-way clutch gears 136 and 138 (gears having respective one-way clutches), wherein idling direction of the one-way clutch gears 136 and 138 are different from each other.
  • a driving gear 135 provided on the rotation shaft of the web motor 134 rotates to rotate the first one-way clutch gear 136 engaged with the driving gear 135 .
  • the first one-way clutch gear 136 engages with the cam shaft 131 only in the forward rotation to transmit the rotational force so that the power is transmitted to the temperature uniformizing roller moving mechanism 154 through the cam shaft 131 .
  • the rotational force is transmitted also to the second one-way clutch gear 138 through the intermediary gear 137 , but the second one-way clutch gear 138 rotates idly (it is engaged with the shaft only in the reverse rotation), so that no driving force is transmitted to the winding-up roller 129 .
  • the first one-way clutch gear 136 rotates idly, so that no power is transmitted to the temperature uniformizing roller moving mechanism 154 .
  • the second one-way clutch gear 138 transmits the power to the shaft when the web motor 134 rotates in the backward direction, and therefore, the winding-up roller 129 is rotated through the gears 139 , 140 .
  • the power transmission mechanism 170 selectively transmits the rotational force of web motor 134 in the backward direction to the roller 129 , and the rotational force of the web motor 134 in the forward direction to the temperature uniformizing roller moving mechanism 154 (moving mechanism).
  • the power transmission mechanism 170 comprises a plurality of one-way clutches, but this is not inevitable, and ordinary clutches may be used, and the number and the idling directions of the one-way clutch may be properly selectable by a person of ordinary skill in the art.
  • a controller 800 of the image forming apparatus 1 comprises a computer including a calculation device 801 and storing devices 802 , 803 and connecting with the image forming station 18 and the fixing device 141 or the like.
  • ROM 802 stores various programs and data including a fixing control program for controlling the image heating portion 150 of the fixing device 141 and a cleaning program for controlling the cleaning portion 160 .
  • the RAM 803 includes a workspace for the calculation device 801 .
  • an image controller 810 and a voltage output portion 806 for the control of the image forming station 18 are connected.
  • the image controller 810 carries out the control for the laser exposure to the image data, and the image reading control from a document reader and/or network.
  • the voltage output portion 806 outputs voltages for the charging, the exposure, the development and the transfer.
  • a fixing roller driver 804 rotates the fixing roller 117 .
  • the pressing roller driver 811 controls the pressing roller moving mechanism 153 to move the pressing roller 118 toward and away from the fixing roller 117 .
  • the calculation device 801 controls the web motor 134 so as to control the movement of the temperature uniforming roller 126 and the winding-up of the cleaning web.
  • the fixing sheet discharge sensor 808 detects the recording material P passing through the fixing device 141 to transmit the event to the calculation device 801 .
  • various drivers 807 for actuating the motors, the solenoids and the clutch, and various sensors 809 for transmitting outputs of a flag sensor and a transmitting type sensor and input and output of an AD converter are connected.
  • the controller 800 discriminates whether or not the temperature uniforming roller 126 is currently in contact with the pressing roller 118 (S 101 ).
  • the controller 800 discriminates whether to switch the temperature uniforming roller 126 from the contact position to the spacing position. If controller 800 discriminates that the contact state is to be maintained (No of S 102 ), it controls the cleaning portion 160 to execute the normal cleaning process (S 130 ). That is, when the temperature uniforming roller 126 continues contacting the pressing roller 118 for more than a predetermined period (No of S 102 ), the web 128 is discriminated as being in contact with the temperature uniforming roller 126 . If a slack eliminate process for the web 128 , which will be described hereinafter, has been carried out, it controls the cleaning portion 160 to execute the normal cleaning process (S 130 ).
  • the controller 800 first initializes a distance value Lc which is a value determining the winding-up amount of the cleaning web 128 (S 131 ). Then, the controller 800 discriminates whether or not the recording material (sheet) P has passed through the fixing device 141 , more particularly, the nip 152 (S 132 ), and if so, a distance value is incremented (S 133 ).
  • the amount of increment is dependent on the sheet size, and in this embodiment, the increment is “1” when the sheet size is not more than 215.9 mm, and the increment is “2”, when the sheet size is larger than 215.9 mm.
  • the backward rotation of the web motor 134 is transmitted to the winding-up roller 129 through the gears 135 , 136 , 137 , 138 , 139 , and 140 ( FIG. 5 ), so that the cleaning web 128 is wound up.
  • the controller 800 stops the rotation of the web motor 134 (S 135 ) to complete the cleaning process.
  • the passing of the recording material P of the fixing device 141 is detected by the fixing sheet discharge sensor 808 for detecting the recording material P at the exit portion of the nip 152 .
  • the size (length) of the recording material having passed through the fixing device 141 is determined referring to the sheet size selected in the print job in this embodiment, but it may be detected using a sensor on the basis of the time at which the fixing sheet discharge sensor 808 is actuated.
  • the controller 800 discriminates the state of the temperature uniforming roller again as shown in FIG. 7 (S 10 ), and thereafter, it discriminates whether or not it is necessary to space the temperature uniforming roller 126 from the pressing roller 118 .
  • the controller 800 discriminates that the temperature uniforming roller 126 is to be switched from the contact position to the spacing position (Y of S 102 ) to rotate the web motor 134 in the forward direction (S 104 ).
  • the web motor 134 rotates in the forward direction, the rotational force is transmitted to the cam shaft 131 through the first one-way clutch gear 136 to disengage between the temperature uniformizing roller unit 132 and the cam 133 ( FIGS. 3 and 5 ).
  • the temperature uniforming roller 126 is moved to the spacing position.
  • the controller 800 discriminates that the temperature uniforming roller 126 is spaced from the pressing roller 118 (spaced in S 101 ) at the time of discrimination (S 101 ).
  • the controller 800 discriminates whether to move the temperature uniforming roller 126 to the contact position (S 105 ), and if it is not necessary to contact the temperature uniforming roller 126 to the pressing roller 118 , the spaced state is maintained (N in S 105 ).
  • the temperature uniforming roller 126 is spaced from the pressing roller 118 , and therefore, the web 128 is also spaced from the temperature uniforming roller 126 . Since the movement roller 127 is movably supported by the supporting mechanism 200 , the movement roller 127 is projected in the righthand direction as shown in part (b) of FIG. 2 by the spring 167 .
  • the controller 800 discriminates that the temperature uniforming roller 126 is to be moved from the spacing position to the contact position (Y in S 105 )
  • the controller 800 rotates the web motor 134 in the forward direction to shift the temperature uniforming roller 126 from the spacing position to the contact position.
  • the temperature uniforming roller 126 contacts also to the web 128 .
  • the movement roller 127 When the temperature uniforming roller 126 moves from the contact position shown in part (a) of FIG. 2 to the spacing position shown in part (b) of FIG. 2 , the movement roller 127 also moves in the urging direction because the movement roller 127 is urged to the temperature uniforming roller 126 by the spring 167 . Therefore, when the temperature uniforming roller 126 is in the spacing position, the cleaning web 128 is additionally drawn out of the supply roller 130 by the movement of the movement roller 127 .
  • the controller 800 In order to remove the looseness or the slack of the cleaning web 128 , the controller 800 carries out a tension recovery process (slack removing process) immediately after the movement of the temperature uniforming roller 126 from the spacing position to the contact position (S 170 ). By the tension recovery process, the controller 800 winds the cleaning web 128 up until the contact surface of the cleaning web 128 to the temperature uniforming roller 126 becomes movable.
  • a tension recovery process slack removing process
  • the controller 800 rotates the web motor 134 in the back line direction (S 171 ) to wind the cleaning web 128 up by the winding-up roller 129 by a predetermined amount (S 175 ).
  • the web motor 134 stops (S 176 ) to complete the tension recovery process (S 178 ). In order to wind up 0.3 mm of the web, approximately 3 seconds (operation time of the motor 134 ) is required. The value is determined through an experiment.
  • an additional cleaning process (S 180 of FIG. 7 ) is carried out in which the controller 800 winds the cleaning web 128 following the completion of the tension recovery process (continuously with the web winding-up process for the removal of the looseness of the web).
  • the controller 800 adds a distance correction value determining a winding-up amount Ltf of the cleaning web to be wound up by the additional cleaning process during the tension recovery process. More specifically, when the backward rotation of the web motor 134 starts in the tension recovery process (S 171 of part (b) of FIG. 8 ), the controller 800 initializes the distance correction value Lf (S 172 ), and discriminates whether or not the recording material P passes through the fixing device 141 (S 173 ).
  • the distance correction value Lf is added in accordance with the length of the recording material P having passed.
  • “2” is added to the distance correction value, and if it is not more than 215.99 mm, “1” is added toward the distance correction value Lf.
  • the controller 800 continues the counting of the distance correction value Lf until the winding of the cleaning web 178 is completed (from N of S 175 to S 174 ).
  • the controller 800 executes the above-described additional cleaning process (S 180 of FIG. 7 ).
  • the cleaning web 128 is wound up, so that the tension state of the cleaning web can be recovered.
  • the fixing device 141 is capable of operating, and therefore, the productivity of the fixing device 141 is not decreased by such an operation of the cleaning portion 160 .
  • the winding-up amount of the cleaning web 128 in the tension recovery operation is determined beforehand by experiments.
  • the looseness of the cleaning web 128 can be detected, by, for example, detecting the position of the cleaning web 128 , or detecting whether or not the drive sensed by a rotary encoder provided on the movement roller 127 is transmitted to the web roller. Therefore, the winding-up amount of the cleaning web 128 may be the amount required until the looseness detected by such a sensor is eliminated.
  • the predetermined amount is such an amount that upon the switching from the spaced state to the contact state, the stretched state with which the contact surface of the cleaning web 128 to the temperature uniforming roller 126 becomes movable by the rotation of the winding-up roller 129 .
  • the cleaning portion 160 can keep a high cleaning performance without reduction of the productivity of the fixing device 141 (image heating portion 150 ).
  • the temperature uniforming roller 126 of which the surface temperature tends to lower because it is not always in contact with the pressing roller 118 involves the nature that the deposited toner thereon tends to solidify and therefore tends to become difficult to remove, but according to this embodiment, the cleaning portion 160 can remove such toner before solidification.
  • the correction winding-up amounts are predetermined in accordance with the recording material sizes, and the predetermined value is added depending on the recording material P passed through the fixing device 141 during the winding-up operation.
  • the amount to add is dependent on whether or not the length of the sheet is larger than 215.9 mm, that is, whether or not the sheet size is larger than A4 size, and therefore, the winding-up amount of the cleaning web 128 can be adjusted properly.
  • the power transmission mechanism 170 is capable of selectively transmitting the forward and backward rotations of the web motor 134 to the winding-up roller 129 and to the temperature uniformizing roller moving mechanism 154 .
  • the driving source may be common to the winding-up roller 129 and the temperature uniformizing roller moving mechanism 154 , so that the fixing device 141 may be compact.
  • the fixing device of the second embodiment is different from the fixing device of the first embodiment only in the control method of the additional cleaning process.
  • the same reference numerals as in Embodiment 1 are assigned to the elements having the corresponding functions in this embodiment, and the detailed description thereof is omitted for simplicity.
  • a controller 800 discriminates whether or not a distance correction value Lf is not less than 2. If the distance correction value Lf is not less than 2 (Y of S 191 ), the distance correction value Lf is subtracted by 2 (S 192 ), and the web motor 134 is driven (S 193 ).
  • the controller 800 stops the web motor 134 (S 194 ), and rests for a predetermined duration (S 195 ).
  • the rest duration is 100 ms, which corresponds to one full rotation of the temperature uniforming roller 126 empirically determined.
  • the controller 800 repeats the operations of steps S 191 -S 195 until the distance correction value Lf becomes less than 2. If the distance correction value Lf becomes less than 2 (N of S 191 ), the additional cleaning process ends (S 196 ).
  • the winding of Ltf and stopping are repeated by the additional cleaning process operation.
  • a relatively larger amount of the deposited matter can be removed the cleaning web 128 , corresponding to the rest duration.
  • the temperature uniforming roller 126 is cleaned with the moving cleaning web 128 , and therefore, a cleanable area of the cleaning web at a position is smaller than that in the case when the cleaning is carried out with the cleaning web 128 not moving.
  • the cleaning performance per unit length of the web can be enhanced by cleaning with the cleaning web 128 at rest and then feeding the cleaning web 128 .
  • the fixing roller 117 is employed as the heating member
  • the pressing roller 118 is employed as the pressing member
  • the heating member and the pressing member may be films.
  • the heater 151 for heating the heating member is not limited to a lamp heater, but may be a heater of an induction heating, resistance heating, radiation heating or heat pipe type or the like.
  • the recording material P passing through the fixing device 141 is detected by the fixing sheet discharge sensor 808 , but it may be discriminated whether or not the recording material P passes by the timing of the recording material P passing the fixing device 141 on the basis of a drive sequence of the feeding process.
  • the addition to the distance value Lc or the distance correction value Lf may be made different depending on the number of the recording materials passing through the fixing device 141 , the image density (weighted thereby), or the amount of the used toner (weighted thereby).
  • the driving source may be provided for each of the motion of the temperature uniforming roller 126 toward and away from and the winding of the winding-up roller 129 .
  • the cleaning portion 160 cleans the temperature uniforming roller 126 , but the present invention is applicable to the cleaning of the pressing member and/or the heating member.

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  • Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Fixing For Electrophotography (AREA)
US14/018,564 2012-09-06 2013-09-05 Cleaning device and fixing device Active US9052656B2 (en)

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JP5932864B2 (ja) * 2014-03-10 2016-06-08 キヤノン株式会社 画像加熱装置
JP6173245B2 (ja) 2014-03-20 2017-08-02 京セラドキュメントソリューションズ株式会社 ローラー支持機構、ローラーユニット、定着装置
US9696672B2 (en) * 2015-04-20 2017-07-04 Ricoh Company, Ltd. Drive transmission unit, fixing device with drive transmission unit, and image forming apparatus having fixing device with drive transmission unit
US10551773B2 (en) * 2017-03-29 2020-02-04 Canon Kabushiki Kaisha Cleaning apparatus, and fixing apparatus using same
JP7006419B2 (ja) * 2018-03-20 2022-02-10 コニカミノルタ株式会社 定着装置および画像形成装置

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